Haitians, Cuban travelling from Guyana arrested in Brazil for illegal entry

Federal Police in neighbouring Brazil have arrested 27 immigrants – 26 Haitians and one Cuban – who illegally entered the border town of Bonfim from Guyana.
The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) in Guyana said in a statement that the more than two dozen immigrants were intercepted during the course of Friday evening and Saturday morning.

In addition to the 26 Haitians and one Cuban, the Federal Police also arrested taxi drivers who were waiting to transport the immigrants onwards in Brazil.
CANU said some of the Haitians arrived in Lethem during this past week and were initially denied entry into Brazil but authorities were suspicious that the immigrants would try to sneak into the neighbouring country through Guyana’s porous borders
“…It was suspected that they would try to use other routes to cross over, hence the information was passed on to Brazilian counterparts by CANU who then alerted their law enforcement units within the area,” a statement from CANU added.
Only recently, Brazil’s Federal Police and CANU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to share information and conduct joint operations, involving narcotics and other criminal activities.
According to CANU, the arrest of these illegal immigrants can be described as an example of excellent cross-border cooperation.
“This is one of the successes coming out of this arrangement. The movement of persons through unofficial crossings not only poses a security risk but also a health risk due to the ongoing COVID pandemic,” the Guyanese agency noted.
Guyana has previously been flagged as a transit point for narcotics trafficking but more recently, has seen increases in both Haitians and Cubans using the country as a transit point to get to other neighbouring states – some passing through the region to get to the United States through Mexico.
Back in December, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall had disclosed that the Brazilian Government had complained about immigrants abusing Guyana as a transit point – a practice which Government is grappling with.
“We have a complaint from the Brazilian Government to say that Guyana is being used as a transhipment point for people smuggling into Brazil. And we are being blamed for this. We are not an island. We are a mainland. And we have extraordinarily wide borders that are almost impossible to monitor and police,” Nandlall had said during an interview with Trinidad’s Morning Edition in December 2020.
In fact, last November, another 26 Haitians suspected to be victims of human trafficking were detained by the Guyana Police Force. It was reported that 13 of the Haitians were first picked up by Police acting on reasonable suspicion and information, at a hotel on South Road and taken to be interviewed by agents of the Trafficking In Persons (TIP) unit.
The remainder were picked up on November 8, 2020, after being intercepted at a Police roadblock in Linden. At the time, the Police became suspicious that the 10 men, nine women and seven children were being smuggled to Brazil through the Georgetown-Lethem route.
Chief Magistrate Sherdel Issacs-Marcus had subsequently issued deportation orders which was sought by the Force’s Immigration Department.
However, the Association of Haitian Nationals in Guyana subsequently, successfully, approached acting Chief Justice Roxane George on December 3, to block the deportation until the constitutionality of their detention comes up for the hearing of arguments.
At the time, the Haitians were in protective custody at the Hugo Chávez Centre pending the outcome of the court case but earlier in December, they were released after it was unclear how long the legal proceedings would last. The immigrants, whom court documents say had lied to the Police during their initial detention, were also asking to be released from the Centre.
They were dropped off at a guest house on South Road, Georgetown, on December 10, 2020.
But one week later on December 17, the 26 Haitians left the city dwelling.
When Guyana Times visited the guest house after it was informed of their disappearance, it was confirmed that the 26 Haitians, including children, were no longer there.
This newspaper was told that two Route 94 minibuses (which operate the Georgetown to Lethem Route) had picked up all the Haitians from the South Road building that afternoon and left.
While the whereabouts of those Haitians has been unknown since then, the High Court has since quashed the deportation order in a ruling last month. (G8)